French reluctant to use an electric car to go on holiday, according to a survey

The summer holidays are approaching, and with them the eternal questions: which destination to choose, but also how to get to your holiday resort? As every year, many French people will opt for the car. For these often long-distance journeys, holidaymakers still show reluctance towards electric vehicles. This is shown by a study* carried out by the Viavoice institute for the motorway company Sanef, made public on Tuesday.

No less than seven out of ten respondents (71%) believe that 100% electric cars are not suitable for driving on the motorway. Even among owners of such vehicles, only 42% believe they are equipped for motorway journeys. "It should be noted that Ile-de-France residents (30%) and those under 25 (38%) are less skeptical than the general population (22%)," the study points out. The electric car still seems to have an image of a city vehicle: among those interviewed in this survey, 80% say it is suitable for the city.

Logically, we find the same mistrust about long holiday journeys. Nearly eight out of ten respondents (78%) do not imagine going on holiday more than 350 km from home with a 100% electric vehicle - less than one in two electric car owners (46%) think the opposite. When we ask the same question, but replace the electric vehicle with a hybrid vehicle, the trend is reversed, with 70% of respondents saying they plan for a long-distance journey.

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Distrust of autonomy

The most frequently cited obstacle is obviously the supposed lack of autonomy over long distances. It is mentioned by 75% of respondents, and 39% cite it first. Even if, in reality, everything depends on the vehicle model, some boast of having a range of more than 400 km - although the UFC-Que Choisir has recently highlighted the "broken promises" of manufacturers.

The charging time comes next (65%), ahead of the difficulty of locating charging stations adapted to his vehicle during trips (56%) - although the network of stations has become denser in recent years. The Sanef group, at the origin of this study and which operates 1807 km of motorways in France, indicates in particular to have "installed 650 ultra-fast electric charging stations (20 min on average) on all its service areas, or every 50 km approximately".

*Survey based on 1001 interviews conducted online from March 31 to April 3, 2023 with a representative sample of the metropolitan French population aged 18 and over.